Alias Anna Based on Hiding in the Spotlight Now for Children ages 10 and up Cover by The Balbusso Twins Zhanna and Frina How would the young Jewish girls survive after their parents and grandparents were killed by the Nazis? Fate took them into the center of the German army where their musical talents saved their lives. But...they had to change their names to hide their true identities. Frina became Marina and Zhanna was Alias Anna Award winning children’s author Susan Hood read Hiding in the Spotlight and couldn’t stop thinking about 14-year-old Zhanna (alias Anna), her 12-year-old sister Frina, and what their story says about the courage of kids and the life-saving power of the arts. Zhanna and Frina tucked the story of their perilous adolescence away, never speaking of it to family or friends, until fifty years later when Zhanna’s eighth-grade granddaughter Aimée got a social studies project to interview a relative about their life at the same age. She wrote a letter to Zhanna, innocently asking: “What was life like when you were thirteen?” That opened the floodgates. As one of the only known survivors of the Drobitsky Yar killing field in Ukraine, Zhanna realized that the world needed to hear this little-known story of how the Holocaust began. One of the first things Zhanna confided to Aimée was that Nazis were the ultimate bullies. She was surprised to find that death mattered little; what hurt more was being harassed, ridiculed, and laughed at for things beyond their control. “Humiliation is much worse than death,” she said. “I guess our honor is life itself.” As authors and parents, we knew these wise words would resonate with middle schoolers. Hood wrote the book in verse, using lyrical language to echo the music—composed by Chopin, Brahms, Mozart, and Bach—that was the girls’ salvation. She combined Dawson’s extensive research and primary sources with her poetry to create a nonfiction biography in verse. Zhanna Arshanskaya Dawson at age 94 is the proud great-grandmother of Aimée’s daughter Félicité. Her legacy of outwitting the Nazis lives on in honor of the family she lost in Ukraine. Telling her story is a fulfillment of her father’s last words to her “I don’t care what you do--Just Live.” ~Dmitri Arshansky Look for Alias Anna: A True Story of Outwitting the Nazis ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0063083892 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0063083899 March 2022. Published by HarperCollins

Alias Anna

Based on Hiding in the Spotlight

Now for Children ages 10 and up

Zhanna and Frina

How would the young Jewish girls survive after their parents and grandparents were killed by the Nazis? Fate took them into the center of the German army where their musical talents saved their lives.

But...they had to change their names to hide their true identities.

Frina became Marina and Zhanna was Alias Anna

Award winning children’s author Susan Hood read Hiding in the Spotlight and couldn’t stop thinking about 14-year-old Zhanna (alias Anna), her 12-year-old sister Frina, and what their story says about the courage of kids and the life-saving power of the arts.

Zhanna and Frina tucked the story of their perilous adolescence away, never speaking of it to family or friends, until fifty years later when Zhanna’s eighth-grade granddaughter Aimée got a social studies project to interview a relative about their life at the same age. She wrote a letter to Zhanna, innocently asking: “What was life like when you were thirteen?” That opened the floodgates. As one of the only known survivors of the Drobitsky Yar killing field in Ukraine, Zhanna realized that the world needed to hear this little-known story of how the Holocaust began.

One of the first things Zhanna confided to Aimée was that Nazis were the ultimate bullies. She was surprised to find that death mattered little; what hurt more was being harassed, ridiculed, and laughed at for things beyond their control. “Humiliation is much worse than death,” she said. “I guess our honor is life itself.” As authors and parents, we knew these wise words would resonate with middle schoolers.

Hood wrote the book in verse, using lyrical language to echo the music—composed by Chopin, Brahms, Mozart, and Bach—that was the girls’ salvation. She combined Dawson’s extensive research and primary sources with her poetry to create a nonfiction biography in verse.

Zhanna Arshanskaya Dawson at age 94 is the proud great-grandmother of Aimée’s daughter Félicité. Her legacy of outwitting the Nazis lives on in honor of the family she lost in Ukraine. Telling her story is a fulfillment of her father’s last words to her

“I don’t care what you do--Just Live.”

~Dmitri Arshansky

Look for

Alias Anna: A True Story of Outwitting the Nazis

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0063083892

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0063083899

March 2022. Published by HarperCollins

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